Chairs

The creation of Chairs financed by corporate sponsorship represents an integral part of the strategic objective of the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management to develop the international nature of the School. These Chairs have already enabled us to welcome, among others, Professor Steve Kaplan (University of Chicago), Professor Kenneth Morse (MIT) and Professor Herwigh Langhor (INSEAD).

At the present time the SBS-EM has eight Chairs :

***NEW*** The InBev-Baillet Latour Chair in Error of Management

The Baillet-Latour Chair in Error Management at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management has been created to study a much neglected topic: how to deal with strategic and organizational errors at the senior executive and board level, and more specifically how to avoid that errors lead organizations down a downward or even fatal path. The Chair aims to develop theories, concepts, insights and frameworks to detect and manage errors so their potentially damaging and even dramatic consequences can be avoided or minimized.

Errors of interest are unintended deviations from rules, codes of conduct, or good principles that result in adverse consequences of strategic magnitude. They may originate either at the operational or the executive level. We are primarily interested in the challenge facing senior executives, executive committee members, CEO or board members in (i) spotting, detecting, identifying, acknowledging corporate errors and (ii) dealing with the observed errors and their consequence by way of corrective actions and remedies.

Given the nature of the question, and the organizational and strategic perspectives taken, our research crosses different fields and disciplines of management research, including Strategy, Leadership, Organizational Behavior and Corporate governance, and touches on various others including Decision Analysis, Risk Management, among others.

The objective is (i) to produce world-class research involving theory development, hypothesis building, and empirical validation through a variety of approaches, including surveys, interviews, case studies, simulations, and grounded theory, and (ii) to alert executive and board level leadership in companies, non-profits and other organizations to the importance of the topic, raise the interest in the issue and provide useful insights, tools and approaches to detect and handle errors in organizations so as to minimize their potential damaging or fatal impact.

In so doing it intends to contribute to the quality of management and leadership in organizations for the benefit of the people, the business, and the community at large.

The Solvay S.A. Chair in Technological Innovation

The primary purpose of this Chair is to create intellectual capitalin the field of technological innovation. The scope of the Chair includes the micro and macro effects of technological innovations well as the analysis and study of innovation management within companies and society in general. Classes are taught at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and at INSEAD in order to promote and support scientific research and academic collaboration between the two institutions. The current Chairholder is Bruno van Pottelsberghe.

The Léo Goldschmidt Chair of Corporate Governance

The purpose of this Chair is to create an international teaching and research centre in corporate governance, in order to promote, among future leaders in society, a better understanding of the nature of the interactions both within a corporation and with its various constituencies. Today the Chair is held by Marco Becht

The GDF-Suez Chair of Leadership and Personal Development

This Chair aims at developing, inside the SBS-EM, a centre of excellence in leadership and personal development. The centre will carry out research in this field, as well as offer courses to the students of the SBS-EM. It will also develop executive education programs and consultancy services for organizations and public institutions. Marcus Stewart is the actual Chairholder.

The Fondation Bernheim - Chair on Global Entrepreneurship

The objective of the Global Entrepreneurship Chair at SBS-EM is to educate, train, and inspire students, researchers and executives who will make new ventures globally successful. It aims to design and implement innovative education and research programs on entrepreneurship in the context of globalization. The global entrepreneurship courses will examine those aspects of international ventures that are broadly applicable, regardless of the location or industry of the venture. The track is relevant to students and other participants with an interest in any country or industry, and willing to become entrepreneurs. The Chairholder is Florian Täube. More information about the Chair.

The Daniel Janssen Chair of Corporate Social Responsibility

This Chair provides doctoral students and those participating in a Master in Business Engineering, an MBA or in an Executive Education program, with a critical assessment of the social, economic and environmental role of business in both the commercial and non-commercial sectors. Its purpose is to give students the opportunity to debate these topics with company directors and trade union or NGO

officials. The Chair is coordinated with the UAE Chair of Business Ethics and the Marie and Alain Philippson Chair of Managing for Sustainable Human Development, as well as with the regular business management classes at the SBS-EM. The current Chairholder is Kevin Jackson.

The Marie and Alain Philippson Chair in Managing for Human Sustainable Development

The purpose of this Chair is to create an international centre of excellence in research and training, and to raise awareness among future leaders regarding sustainable human development issues and the role of the private sector in combating poverty. It also enables such topics to be included incourses taught at the SBS-EM. The Chair focuses in particular on developing countries and their integration

into the international economy and also establishes partnerships with businesses active in Africa. The Chair is currently held by Philip Verwimp.

*** NEW *** The Kurgan-van Hentenryk Chair in Business History

The purpose of this chair is to conduct high-level research in the field of business history. The Chair’s research focus lies on the comparative analysis of the origins, development, and consequences of the science and technology-based industry which has emerged as a global phenomenon from the 1970s onwards. In terms of research diffusion, the Chair intends to give students the learning tools and the latest insights in business history. Finally, as a commitment to the communication of research, it ambitions to initiate a wide range of scientific activities as a means to foster the public development of business history and enhance the interest of scholars, experts, and business actors for this field. The current Chairholder is Kenneth Bertrams.